Simple Pie Chart for Analysis Services Data - Page 5

19.
Make the
settings, listed in Table 2 below, within the Style Properties
dialog box:

Property

Setting

Family

Arial

Size

8pt

Style

Normal

Weight

Normal

Color

Red

Decoration

None

Table 2: Style Properties Dialog

The Style
Properties dialog appears, with our settings, as depicted in Illustration
22.

Illustration 22: Style Properties Dialog Box with Settings

20.
Click OK
to accept settings.

The Style
Properties box closes. We return to the Edit Chart Value dialog
box, which now appears as shown in Illustration 23.

Illustration 23: The Edit Chart Value Dialog Box, with Our Input

21.
Click the Action
tab of the Edit Chart Value dialog.

Here we
can define Hyperlink actions, including Jump to report, Jump
to bookmark, or Jump to URL. We will not be working with a
drillthrough scenario in this practice session, and so will leave undisturbed
the default setting of None, as depicted in Illustration 24.

Illustration 24: The Action Tab of the Edit Chart Value Dialog Box

22.
Click the Data
Output tab of the Edit Chart Value dialog.

The Data
Output tab affords us a means of defining XML data output options
for the values in the chart. We will not leverage these capabilities within
this introduction to simple Column charts, and will therefore leave the
settings of the Data Output tab at their defaults, as shown in Illustration
25.

Illustration 25: The Data Output Tab with Default Settings

23.
Click the
OK button at the bottom of the Edit Chart Value dialog, to dismiss
the dialog with our settings.

We are
returned to the Data tab of the Chart Properties dialog. Next we
will work with the Category groups area of the tab, just under the Values
area. Categories are displayed as individual slices in the pie. Each Category
is displayed in the chart legend, when the legend is selected for use.

24.
Click the Add...
button to the right of the Categorygroups list box, found
immediately underneath the Values list box with which we worked above.

The Grouping
and Sorting Properties dialog appears, defaulted to the General tab.

25.
Type (or cut
and paste) the following into the Name box, atop the General tab:

chart1_Cat1_SalesReason

26.
Click the top
row of the Expression box within the Group on section that
appears just underneath the Name box, to enable the selector button (the
downward-pointing arrow) on the right side of the box.

27.
Select =Fields!Sales_Reason.Value
from the options that appear, as depicted in Illustration 26.

Illustration 26: Select =Fields!Sales_Reason.Value in the Top Row of the Expression List ...

As we
have no input for the Filters or Data Output tabs (which resemble
their counterparts in other areas of the Report Designer, as we have,
and shall, see), within the context of this newly added group, and as we intend
to leave the Sorting at the settings naturally found within the cube
structure (the Sales Reasons will sort, where appropriate, in alphabetical
order), we will accept our input at this stage.

The Grouping
and Sorting Properties dialog appears, with our modifications, as shown in Illustration
27.

We will
not add a Series group in this simple Pie chart. Series,
when used, are also displayed as individual slices in the pie. Each Series
is also displayed in the chart legend (and each is concatenated with the
respective Categories, where applicable).

We will
move to the X Axis and Y Axis tabs in the subsections that follow.

The Y
Axis tab, like the X Axis tab, is disabled for a Pie chart
data region. All settings are therefore grayed out.

We will
move to the Legend tab next.

Legend Tab

1.
Click the Legend
tab.

We advise
our client colleagues that, since the default position for the legend is
to the right of the chart area, and since our simple pie chart may be
wider than expected, due to its nature and the amount of data we are presenting,
placing the legend underneath the chart will offer another means of more
efficiently arranging the overall presentation.

2.
Ensure that
the Show legend checkbox is checked, in the upper left corner of the
tab.

3.
Ensure that
the Column radio button is selected, on the left side of the Layout
section of the tab.

We inform our client colleagues that the 3D Effect tab
offers us a means of transforming the ordinarily flat appearance of our Column
chart to a highly customizable, three  dimensional presentation. Here we
can enable 3-D visual effects (via the checkbox to the immediate left of
the Display chart with 3-D visual effect label). The four variables that
we can manipulate are:

Horizontal
rotation

Perspective

Wall thickness

Vertical
rotation

Once 3-D visual effects are enabled, a slider
becomes enabled for each of these variables, which we can move to adjust each
variable until we achieve just the degree of readability we desire within the
chart.

We will
leave the settings of the 3D Effect tab at default at this point. The 3D
Effect tab appears, with default settings, as shown in Illustration 31.

We will examine
the final remaining tab, Filters,in the next subsection.

Filters Tab

1.
Click the Filters
tab.

The Filters tab is but one option we have, within Reporting
Services, to filter the data that is displayed within our chart. We advise
our client colleagues that we performed all desired filtering at the dataset
level earlier within our practice session. When this is adequate (that is,
when we can afford to filter at the dataset level for the entire report),
we may achieve performance gains at report runtime, due to the overall
retrieval of less data from the Analysis Services data source. But, we
caution the client representatives, due consideration should be given to the
various points at which we can filter within a given report, to ascertain that
we optimize performance while retaining complete and accurate information for
presentation.

The Filters tab allows us to choose either simple dataset
columns or expressions to filter data at the chart level. This might
make sense as a filter point if we were, say, using multiple data regions
(charts, matrices, tables, lists, or a combination of these, perhaps) that were
sharing the same common dataset(s), but where each region had different
filtering requirements and needed to present different subsets of data from the
underlying dataset(s). Whatever our needs, Reporting Services,
once again, offers flexibility in ways to meet the challenges involved.

The Filters
tab appears, with default settings, as depicted in Illustration 32.

2.
Click OK
to accept all the settings we have made in the multi-tabbed Chart Properties
dialog box.

The Chart Properties dialog closes, returning
us to the placeholder chart item in Report Designer, Layout tab. We will conclude our practice session in the next section,
where we will verify the operation of our new Pie chart.